Yeah! What's the deal with the alien characters?! They all suck!
Obviously Chewbacca doesn't... Wait does Chewbacca hold all the awesomeness of the other aliens that they were supposed to have?
ROAR!!!!

jar jar sucks ... that is all

critiquing everything awful about those films would be a major investment of time.

Darth Maul

Inspid Jamaican space lizards.
Offensively Asian sounding villans.
Furry analogues for the Viet Cong taking on a an ruthless Galactic Empire that can be destroy planets and succeeding in foiling their plans. With flint spears. And gliders.
Hayden Christiansen.
No Natalie Portman in metal bikini.

It's interesting that people can take the time to berate all the "wrongs" of Star Wars, yet that time could be used more constructively and creatively.

Then again, it's a sad fact that people will always dwell more on negatives.

Do you think Brian "the son of Dune's Frank" Herbert will appear, and tell the story of how his pops (and pop's sci-fi cronies; use your imagination) saw Star Wars and nearly shat themselves at the blatant theme-thieving?
Gossipy gossip!

@papertiger201:

I don't see it that way. We dwell too much on the positives and what things could have been, so we're let down and then get bitter. Who knew that the first sequel to Star Wars was going to be BETTER?

i think that with Star Wars it's very easy to forget that it is very much an auteured indie film, albeit on a grand scale. Many fans confuse their personal memories of their experience watching the films with the films themselves. In the end, it is George Lucas' opus, and he can do with it what he wants. for better or worse.

Meh. Organized prequel hate is so early 90's. So they weren't all that great, big whoop. Put on the grown-up pants and get over it already.

Whoops. Early 2000's. Yeah, I fail.

Personally, I don't think the prequels were ever conceived, written or designed with the original Star Wars fans in mind (all adults by now). Think about it: if they had been, the films would have grown up with us. Had they been for us, I believe we'd have seen a much darker storyline with weightier issues, etc.

I think there's a lot to like in the prequels, yes. I also like Spongebob Squarepants, despite the fact that I am not its target audience.

Han shot first

This is so fucking lame.

I first saw STAR WARS as a college student, not a child of 5-10, so while I enjoyed the original films I never worshipped them/built my worldview around them/masturbated to them like so many of the Gen X-Y fans seem to have done. I never saw the need for the prequels. I mean, for chrissakes, we already KNEW how it was going to END. How fucking suspenseful is that?

Why even introduce the character of Boba Fett, in the first place?

Why hasn't he finished all nine episodes by now. I remember him saying back in the late 70's that he was going to produce one every three years, meaning episode 9 should have been out seven years ago in 2001...

@rbb: Yeah... Back in the 70's. He's been saying there's only the six far more recently. He certainly was back in 2005, on Charlie Rose and in other interviews.

That's not to say he won't change his mind again in 2115, of course.

It'll be interesting to see how the filmmakers balance out the personal criticisms ("You crapped on our childhoods, George!") and the nitpicking of minutiae ("The Old Republic existed for a thousand generations, not a thousand years!"). I wonder which one is their priority...

"In a press conference today George Lucas replied by laughing all the way to the bank."

In retrospect, there was only one thing that I liked about the prequels: Obi-Wan. He was just as awesome then as he was in the original trilogy.

Everything else was just sort of meh. Not even Christopher Lee or the novelty of having Samuel L Jackson play a bad-ass Jedi Master could save those films.

don't these people have anything better to do?

besides , it's lucas's franchise , he can do whatever the hell he wants to do with it .

Dear Mr. Lucas,

Would it be too difficult to hire some writers that have a proven track record (selling books perhaps)to write for you? The movies can look great, but the lines those poor actors have to read are soooo pathetic. George, you are not a good writer, you are a concept man.

The worst thing about Star Wars is the fan-boys who demand that Lucas remake the whole half billion dollar work to suit their personal masturbatory fantasies. The second worse is the critics who try to force deep meaning on what is a modern equivalent of a 1930's movie serial.

The third worse thing is people with no sense of humor who hate Jar-Jar and the "Little Fuzzies" AKA Ewoks. Jar Jar was Gabby Hayes, you know? Comic relief? Comic? Never mind.

You lost all the mystery and wonder of the first films. Get that back and maybe they won't be all about the special effects and light sabers.

dear lucas,

your movies don't suck. you made some great kids movies and it's unfortunate that many fans that enjoyed the originals when they saw them the first time in middle or high school are unable or unwilling to accept the fact that they enjoyed them because they were kids movies. you made a series of prequels that were widely successful in that same age group and not surprisingly abhorred by the teenagers of yesteryear that simply grew out of them. some people make kids movies that transcend age, you don't, and rabid fans would be far better adjusted if they would just accept that and move on.

@tetracycloide: I think the proper way to address him would be Mr. Lucas. :)

My take: wonder if any of these people really ever liked SW, I mean, so much spit wasted for a movie. Never heard of diminishing returns?
Grow up (or join the u.k. jedis ...).

There are plenty of 'movies that I can enjoy as an adult. Many of the Pixar films, for example (more believable characters there actually).

Not the SW prequel turds though. It's not because they're for kids and I'm not a kid anymore, it's because they are bad films and I haven't started liking bad films all of a sudden.

And the worse thing about the internet is the Bevis and Butthead level of criticism. "It sucks. Hyckhyckhyck."

The problem is that everyone compares the prequels to the originals. The originals were incredible and great. The prequels were somewhat mediocre. They weren't totally awful, but some people cannot see them for their good points, because they constantly compare them to the originals.

@gods-n-clods: You know so many Dune fans say this, yet as a Dune fan I barely see the resemblance beyond desert boy who becomes Jedi/Prince who becomes leader of a people.

And to be truthful, Herbert stole just as much from Muslim, Japanese, and European texts as Lucas stole from the things BASED on said texts.

Falconfire, Herbert stole nothing. He was "influenced" by history, which includes everything. All writers (myself included) are the accumulation of everything that has influenced us. Lucas turned me on to Herbert in an interview where he said how Dune had influenced him. As a result, Star Wars + Dune influenced me. The problem with Mr. Lucas is his Universe is all about looks, and very little to do with good dialog. He's pretty much a grade-B comic book dialog man, but an A+ visual and sound guy.

Glad to see general support for ol man Lucas in here! I think the main thing to consider with regard to the entire Star Wars franchise and particularly the 6 movies is how essentially they are the vision of a single, incredibly focused dude.

Sure he's probably gotten greedy over the years, and yeah, a lot of the franchise stuff is junk but what other director/artist/writer of the current era has had the willpower, vision and skill to create such a strangely complex and powerful vision? Star Wars is a major work of crazy art that fits its time period incredibly well.

It is an unparalleled phenomenon if you really think about it. If you don't believe me, check out "American Graffiti" to see the same thing in micro-scale. Lucas was and still is a master of zeitgeist. He's not a normal movie maker or visual artist, he's (sorta like William Gibson, Ray Bradbury(especially), Isaac Asimov, Orson Welles, etc) a folklorist of mass culture.

Oh yeah and in addition to Star Wars he also created Indiana Jones which everyone always seems to forget.